Origin

Sow, in the sense to plant is Old English and had the sense ‘disseminate’ from early on. The image of disseminate (Late Middle English) is the same, for it comes from Latin semen (Late Middle English) meaning ‘seed’. Seed (Old English) in turn comes from the same Germanic root as sow. The differently pronounced sow that is the female pig is also Old English, and goes back to an Indo-European root shared by Latis sus and Greek hus which suggests they were on the menu for our early ancestors.